Pirelli calculates: Strategy of Verstappen is slower than Hamilton

Strategy will play an important role in the Russian Grand Prix today. While Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen will start on the yellow medium, Lewis Hamilton will have to make do with the red softs. According to many, the softs are not the best band for the race, but Pirelli really thinks differently.

Indeed, the Italian tyre supplier expects that the softest tyre will allow for two of the fastest strategies. The quickest strategy will be from soft to hard, with short behind it soft to medium. Then comes the strategy that Verstappen and Bottas are likely to use.

Hamilton himself thought that he had to start on the worst tyre and that Verstappen and Bottas would simply drive away from him. So Pirelli expects that the softest tyre will be the fastest tyre for the race and that the medium will be a slower alternative.

The medium to the hardest tyre seems to be the fastest strategy according to the drivers and Hamilton even expected on Saturday that he couldn't play a role to win because he had to start on the softest tyre. However, Pirelli expects Hamilton to have the advantage, while Verstappen and Bottas are not on the fastest strategy.